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A question for the luthiers here. I have noticed that many of the Asian made classical and flamenco guitars have what appears to be a plastic binding on the edge of the fretboard. First noticed this with Yamahas. Now with the influx of Chinese and Korean imports, it seems that most of these factories use this binding. I come from a steel string background and am very familiar with bound fretboards on acoustic and electric guitars. What would be the purpose of this feature?
Here's a photo of a luthier made (DanielTurner) side view of the fingerboard and I can't see the tang of the fret showing. Nice cejilla though.
It is just an exersise in tidying things up and really isn't necassery.
From a refret perspective it can make the job a lot harder. I get quite a lot of refrets in so pretty thankful that this is not a standard feature on Spanish guitars!
I would think that it is extra work to bind both sides of a fretboard. Although with all the pre-cut pieces and machinery at work in the factories, it might be easier to do. Good point about re-fretting.
Perhaps this is a better photo of what my original question was about. Check out the 5th photo in this listing.
Sorry, I see the same thing. The only difference is that this one has finish on the sides of the fretboard but that is a common thing. Still no binding to my eyes.
Maybe it's binding, maybe not. Well done joints in ebony can be very hard to detect. Next to last time I was at Brune's shop he showed me a 1960s Ramirez 1a blanca with the fingerboard made from two pieces of ebony joined along the length of the board. I couldn't see the joint.
My '67 Ramirez 1a blanca's fingerboard is one piece, at least from the nut to the third fret. I can tell, because there's a light colored patch there that wasn't dyed completely, and you can see the grain a little.
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